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The Money Pit of Oak Island

For nearly 200 years, singly and in syndicates, men have been boring and tunneling on a small island off Nova Scotia in search of a fabulous treasure.

Vastly more treasure—has been poured into the search than has ever came out of it. Whoever dug the “Money Pit” on Oak Island was a brilliant engineer, who harnessed the sea to keep trespassers at bay and to keep something so valuable out of others hands.

The pit consists of a deep shaft, furnished with an ingenious arrangement of side tunnels that allow the sea to flood in whenever diggers plumb it’s depths. Many hopeful treasure hunters have retired soaked, penniless and baffled as to the secret of the legendary treasure’s final resting place.

The only finds so far have been: three links of a chain that may have been gold or copper (accounts vary); a tiny scrap of parchment reading the two letters, V and I, written with a quill pen: and a cipher stone with odd samples that was found at 90 feet down the shaft. But which has since mysteriously disappears. Having last been seen circa 1912.

The hunt began in 1795, when 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis paddled over from the little Nova Scotian town of Chester to hunt game on uninhabited Oak Island. In a clearing at one end of the island, an old ship’s block and tackle hung from a tree over the center of a 12 foot wide depression.

Undeterred by tales of hauntings and fired by legends of pirate treasure, he and two other boys started digging. They found a 13-foot-wide circular shaft dug through flinty clay, with thick oak platforms at 10, 20 and 30 feet. The work became harder for various reason—including a difficulty of getting help from superstitious townsfolk and was then abandoned in 1804.

In the same year, a wealthy Nova Scotian named Simeon Lynds formed the first treasure company—and found the first and greatest obstacle to all further “open” explorations of the pit: water.

The diggers had broken through eight oak platforms, three of which were sealed with ship’s putty and coconut fibers when the cipher stone was found at 90 feet, and when the hole had been dug 8 feet deeper, a crowbar hit something solid. Lynds was sure he had found the elusive treasure chest.

The next day he was mortified to discover that the pit had filled with 60 feet of water overnight. Weeks of bailing with buckets and the use of crude pumps failed to lower the water’s level inside the pit.

In 1805, Lynds’ miners sank a second shaft close and parallel to the original pit. At 100 feet they began burrowing toward the treasure. The miners had to scramble for their lives when water suddenly burst into their shaft—and filled it to the same level as the original shaft. The once wealthy Simeon Lynds was now practically destitute—having run through his fortune in search of the treasure.

The original discoverer of the Money Pit, Daniel McGinnis, died. But in 1849, the two boys who had helped him with the first dig in 1795, John Smith and Anthony Vaughn, now in their seventies, returned to Oak Island and tried again with the help of a syndicate from Truro, Nova Scotia.

Two more chests
The Truro shafts, drillings, and pumpings seemed to confirm the existence of two or more chests that might contain treasure in some form: but their work weakened and undermined the pit itself and caused the bottom to collapse into what was thought to be a vast cavern—carrying down the chests and possibly breaking apart and dispersing the contents. But the Truro syndicate did discover why the pits had flooded to a level that rose and fell with the tides.

A man-made tunnel, 111 feet down connected the sea to the cavern and pit. In 1893 the sea tunnel was dynamited and blocked—yet still the pit flooded uncontrollably. In 1942 a second man-made tunnel, 150 feet down was discovered and it was feared that there might be many more.

Further excavations were made in 1909, 1931, 1935, 1936, 1942, 1959, 1965, 1969, and 1971, none of which were successful. During the 1990s, further exploration was stalled because of legal battles over the land rights. As of 2005, a portion of the island was for sale. In April of 2006 a Michigan group, said it will resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and the mystery of Oak Island.

Pirate treasure
There has been wide-ranging speculation amongst enthusiasts as to who originally dug the pit and what it might contain. A pirate treasure hoard buried by Captain Kidd or possibly Edward Teach (Blackbeard), who claimed he buried his treasure “where none but Satan and myself can find it.” Some also hold to the theory that Kidd conspired with Henry Every and Oak Island was used as a pseudo community bank between the two.

Navel engineeringOthers agree it was dug to hold treasure but believe this was done by someone other than pirates, such as Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon or Britishtroops during the American Revolution. John Godwin argued that, given the apparent size and complexity of the pit, it was likely dug by French army engineers hoping to hide the contents of the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg after it fell to the British during the Seven Years’ War

Marie Antoionette’s jewelsThere is a story that, like most others regarding the island, lacks adequate archival sources, which places the priceless jewels of Marie Antoinette (which are historically missing) on Oak Island. During the French Revolution, when the Palace of Versailles was stormed by revolutionaries in 1789, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid or a lady-in-waiting to take her prized possessions and flee. Supposedly, this maid fled to London with such royal items as Antoinette’s jewels and perhaps other treasures, such as important artwork or documents, secreted away either on her person or as her luggage; it is even said she was perhaps assisted by the remaining officers of the French navy during the uprising at the queen’s behest.

The story then goes that this woman fled further afield from London to Nova Scotia; through her royal connections she would have had during her service to the queen at Versailles, she managed to contract the French navy to help construct the famed ‘pit’ on the island. This theory, as noted, lacks recognized documentation other than that which is folkloric in nature, involves the French navy, which, during the Revolution had an uncertain level of authority, and would place the construction of the Oak Island structure very close to its initial discovery by Daniel McGinnis in 1795. Whether such a complex engineering effort could have been completed in that small space of time is questionable, though no official date of its construction exists. However, other theories do suggest the structure is French and naval in style.

Other theoriesStill others have speculated that the Oak Island pit was dug to hold treasure much more exotic than gold or silver. In his 1953 book, The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit, Penn Leary claimed that EnglishphilosopherFrancis Bacon used the pit to hide documents proving him to be the author of William Shakespeare‘s plays, It has been asserted that the pit might have been dug by exiled Knights Templar and that it is the last resting place of the Holy Grail.

Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the apparent pit is a natural phenomenon, likely a sinkhole and natural caverns

Regardless of it’s hidden secrets or storied past and after over 200 years of drilling, digging and pumping the surrounding area of Oak Island has become so confused that the exact location of the original Money Pit is no longer known for certain.

105 thoughts on “The Money Pit of Oak Island”

Why don’t anybody who digs up the money pit using todays technogly,like hudge dieasle bildge pumps to suck up the water then plug up the holes that bring the sea water in them keep up the process and hit the money pits secrets. If companys can drill relive well in the gulf then enough said.

actually there are several pipe-like ditches buried at different levels and die was cast in the pit to stain the distant shoreline where these pipe-like ditches originate. i believe a circular ditch around the outside would expose them & not affect the pit itself. i’ve seen gold and silver pits dug that are much deeper so the tech is available

I don’t think we should be digging down there. They wouldn’t booby trap it for no reason, and since we don’t know what the tablet says we should just leave it alone. It’s probably nuclear waste from ancient times. They don’t want people to get hurt or die.

Ancient civilizations had more advanced nuclear technology than we do now, by roughly 75 years. Look into the rama empire, and ancient radioactive ash in india thats still there today from 10,000 ears ago.

If there was another civilization before ours that was more advanced with nuclear technology I seriously doubt that they buried their waste 100+ feet down a hole on this island. I bet there is treasure down there.

The interesting thing is that is exactly what we were going to do with our nuclear waste at yucca mountain, it’s the only thing anybody can think of to do with it. Another interesting thing is that spent nuclear fuel needs to be covered in cool water CONSTANTLY or else it will explode, or mixed with other chemicals to make it into “glass” rods, and encapsulated in dry casks (which it will eventually eat through) It makes perfect sense that this is an ingenious measure to bury waste.

They should use the technique used to dig the supports for bridges.
A chamber lowered to the bottom, that can be sealed air tight, like an upside down bell.
Once water is pumped out of the bell, workers can enter via and air lock at the top of the bell, this stops water from entering the bell, and worker can get a first and look of what they are working on.

It is not a treasure pit and it wasn’t built recently. The only answer for the structure is that it was built when the sea level was lower by 200 – 400 feet. Or in other words during the last glaciation, at least 15,000 to 18,000 years ago. Building a tunnel 150 feet under sea level is not within the limits of the existing technology.

well the building of the pyramids went way beyond the expertise of the time period but they stand so I would say that are logic and intellect of today can not be applied to the past as we just dont know enough about what actually happened during those time periods

I agree, the side tunnels were air shafts or possibly easier routs into the pit, they were not under water when the put was originally built. The Layers of oak platforms may have been to store food supplies in a cooler environment.
The pyramids has similar air shafts.
If there were treasure down there, there is also a good possibility that it was moved within the lifetime of the builders.

Considering the time in which it was discovered, the report mysterious Green Lights on the shore, and the complexity of the engineering, eroneous carbon dating of artifacts in it, it really is a unique problem to explain.:)

Hey Guys, there is three logical explanation, the hole was dugged during a time when the water level was much lower, maybe during a long moon eclipse, the moon controls the oceans, if not, it would mean that Capitain Kidd had a technology that we know nothing about, or like the pyramids, someone had help from outerspace.
Rod

Maybe, just maybe one of the excavator teams found what was really buried and are keeping it a secret and maybe the secret was too big for public knowledge. Therefore the Money Pitt mystery will never be solved because it has been solved in secret. I just find it hard to believe that in the 20th 21st century man cannot get to the bottom of this pit regardless of the flooding situation or other obstacles.

i agree. with today’s tech an all the things we are able to accomplish
and do. it really doesn’t make any sense how we can’t get to the bottom of a hole in the ground no matter how complex it’s design or it’s engineering .
we can go to the moon but cant get the bottom of a pit, we can send robots to mars but cant stop a hole from flooding. hum somethings not adding up. im pretty sure we at least have the technology to see whats at the bottom of the money pit
if we figured out how to clone animals and built nuclear weapons. look at what i’m saying hear everything i just stated hear are technology super advancements. the money pit’s contents have either been found out. or the gov controls the area now and is gonna find out. an everything that is being said is just a destraction
fueled by speculation.

My nephew, an engineer, used the term “diabolical” when I mentioned it to him. I don’t know what it is; I’d like to know more or less how old it is. King Solomon in the Bible said that there was “nothing new under the sun”, so what went on even long before his time might very well have encompassed great feats of engineering. (From what I understand, King Solomon, while the wisest man on earth at the time, was unaware of specifics of such things towards the end of his life.) It is possible that books in the great Library of Alexandria, destroyed more than 2,000 years ago, might have discussed some of that ancient engineering. I think it best to occupy ourselves with the here and now rather than speculate about the so-called “Oak Island Money Pit”.

Ive seen the discovery channel on this topic and it seems it may have been dug when the sea level was lower.Ime sure somone must of carbon dated the wood? there are many mysteries on this planet,you only have to look at Egypt and the middle east its all good stuff.I wish people were more open minded and less narrow minded,the so called experts think we only developed inteligent brain several thousand years ago.As for the money pit somone went to a lot of effort to hide somthing, if it was! at sea level.

The carbon dating was apparently inconclusive, giving inconsistent results (according to one source, even futuristic dates).
About the sea level issue, I think they could have dug the pit first, then open the hidden channels that flood the pit. So the whole thing didn’t have to be above sea level at the time of building it.
But this kind of negates the idea that it was used as a ‘bank’ for pirate treasure. It certainly wouldn’t have been easy to get in and out of there, unless there was another entrance or it was a simple matter to plug the flooding channels if you know where they are (but then you still have to dig and go thru all those platforms).

If the water level was lower then why did the side channels to bring in water? The people who built it created it knowing it would flood if an excavation was attempted. They would not have done that if the water levels were lower, it wouldn’t have flooded and would have made zero sense!

Why don’t they seal off the top, then pump air into the pit therebye forcing the water out and plug the tunnels that are letting the water in. It doesn’t seem to me the pressure would be that intense. It would be like a deep water dive. Problem Solved

Good idea, however I believe there are are hundreds of holes from all the failed bypass drilling attempts, would hat effect it?
If there are caverns there must be a cave entry somewhere you would think.

I think that would work, but you’d need a heavy bulkhead to pressurize from, or secondary bulkheads at descending levels (maybe this is why they had the sealed layers in the first place). Each leak would be revealed as the pressure built by bubbles coming from the point of input for the seawater. You’d have to do it each time you passed a new layer while drilling, so the drilling itself might have to be done under pressure. The depth of the pit being unknown, you would have to be prepared to step up the pressurization as it goes deeper. It’s not a small thing, but I think it’s doable.

I saw a program last night on the history channel about this (10/15/10). I had never heard of it and was totally fascinated. I guess all of this is on private property and researchers can only do what property owners allow. If I owned it, I would certainly want to know what was there!!!! If I owned the property, wouldn’t it be my treasure?

I’ve fallowed the pit for over ten years now, and the most “logical” explanation I’ve heard is the Templar one IMAO. Someone new what they were doing when they made the pit…….Why is there little to no carbon dating?

Ok first i am only 16 years old and i know that if we can almost fill a leeking pit of oil in the gulf we could at least get water out a tunnel. ok first let red dye down the tunnel on a full tide then as the tide is lowerd the red die goes out in to the ocean thus finding each hole leading to the ocean then cover up the holes with some thing then after that pump the water out of each level of the shaft leading u to the bottom.

its been done before with the dye however I too believe that there is a way to figure out whats at the bottom in 2010, but we may never know the truth. Perhaps the truth is so great that if someone finds it, there will be no public acknowledgement of the discovery

And how much money, time, and manpower did it cost to plug that oil well in the Gulf? Oil wells have a fairly proven track record, and you can determine putting in x dollars will result in y profit. So a company can make a business case for drilling an oil well.
Here, we don’t know what’s at the bottom, and we really don’t know the expense of finding out, so how does a rational business decide whether it’s worthwhile or not? Especially if you have to bring in the big equipment and set up shop there for a couple years.

They have already did the dye thing already except with red paint, i believe In The 1800’s and the paint was seen coming out of the north and south end of the island. Personally I think something was found And just kept secret. Just Like the dissapearence of the inscribed stone, except the good stuff was never known in the first place. I am very anxious to see what this new excavation turns up, it started this year.

I think that you can dig the hole into a v and then by each of the holes that flood the place then clog them with cement like BP did in the gulf.
Or do the red paint thing again and clog the holes with cement and stuff. If I could go over there then I would get to the treasure. I am filled with Ideas and thoughts about this. Oak Island is cool!

you will never know because what’s at the bottom could change the way you look at the past history and most people can not handle it and your powers to be know that . there’s alot more to it than just this hole in the ground look around take it all in enjoy life as you know it.

i dont want to throw any wrong ideas out there but what if its something we are not meant to see. also even though it is not likely what if it is the hiding place of the ark of the covenant or a big religous benefactor

Cool Article! My spouse and i had been simply just debating that there’s a whole lot absolutely wrong details at this matter and also you precisely replaced the belief. Many thanks for a marvelous contribute.

I don’t commonly reply to posts but I will on this situation.
my God, i thought you had been going to chip in with some decisive insght in the end there, not depart it
with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.

The problem with carbon dating the wood is that submersion in salt water gives false readings. It was first thought it made things appear 450-500 years younger than they were, but it is now known that the concentration of salt severely affects this estimate.

On second thought, if there were higher powers (Free Masons, Government etc…)that know what is in the pit then would they not show more effort to protect the island? How I understand it is that one of the eccentric owners plays shotgun Willy @ the entrance. My point is….that if there was something of major value on that island would someone do more to protect it? Is it possible that this pit was a diversion for the real pit on one of the other 300 plus similar islands in that area?

I really think that this is an intriguing article, however I think that there is enough technology to unravel the pit. In this age where we can drill a tunnel under channel sea to place a railway under there , this is not really a challenge. Why cant someone just invent a downward facing drill to bust through the wood and then just lower a camera in there to peep at what ever is at the bottom? I think people are just not interested in pouring money in a project that might just yield an old scroll or something mythical like that does not have any value in today’s world what so ever.

Having said that , the engneering is phenominal and there could be something down there that might even be extraterestrial that might turn the world in it head. Imagine if down there was a beacon that would lead an elien race that has been hunting for earth for years? It is concivable that something happened to stop eliens visiting earth after all the sighting in the encient world. Could this be homing divice that might trigger a rush of eliens lining up to conquer earth?

By now, being submerged in sea water for all these years, the only thing that would still be in-tact would be precious metals or stones. Any wood, paper textiles are destroyed by now. We have a forgotten History with engineering accomplishments in some cases surpassing those of today. the Bronze age in Europe 4000 years ago it appears was fueled with Copper from mines near Lake Michigan. 2,000,000 pounds were removed from those mines and the only place it cold have gone is Europe.

This is facinating but why not just create a barrier around the island? I mean if the water comes from the sea cut off the supply. How deep is the surrounding water? 40 feet? 100 feet? I do like the idea of plugging the shafts from inside the hole. Seems too simple and possibly anything there has already been found and removed.

It’s a big island. 140 acres (60-some hectares), then you have to go out into the sea whatever distance to make sure you’re past the supposed tunnel entrances. Then put up a strong steel barrier anchored either to the bedrock or deep beneath the floor of the ocean, then pump it all out. But first, you’d need to get an environmental impact study, and permission from the Canadian government for disturbing a wetlands.

If I had permission to go in there and a BIG budget to go in on I *think* that installing some steel casing into the original shaft might work. If it was close to the same diameter as the dirt shaft and started from the bottom up (duh) and built up to the top like you were casing a water well shaft or something like that. The casing could/should be able to penetrate far enough at the bottom to make a water tight seal and then it would be possible to pump the water out of the inside and then have a little look at what’s down at the bottom. If you had to dig down farther that what the pit is now (to get out the treasure) then the casing would have to be re-aligned or reinstalled to keep the water out. I’m a brick layer and not a well driller but I bet I could get to the bottom of that money pit. (I just need you all to chip in about $25,000 apiece so that we can get started.)

If it was dug when sea levels were lower, did they plan ahead for sea levels to rise so the trap would work? This thing is amazingly planned out. The people of the old world were a lot smarter than we think, unless aliens did it.

Yes i agree, that for sure something already been found! If not they will keep drilling, for build those flood tunnels for sure, they use some dams to construct the 5 nails, we are in 21 century, i think if we put the right people working there they will find a simple solution! My idea is simple, just put down a metal pipe, layer after layer from bottom to top, sealed all joints, making the water impossible to enter this new structure, i don´t think is impossible, maybe really expensive yes, but impossible no. The problem I see is the continuous water that keep enter the pit, so they will need to work over vacuum, just put the edge of the first layer closed on top, and put layer after layer open the last top after putting the another on top. After they reach the bottom of the pitt, it will be possible to open the top, and pull out the water inside, this will seal any attempt of the water fill the pitt again.
But for be honest i think that the problem goes even furter, and no matter what the pitt will keep be fill. i think that the original designers of the pitt, think in a way to fill the pitt from sides with water from sea, and from the bottom of the pitt, with some fresh water supplies from the bed rock. This problem will not be solved in the next 100 years or more!
There is a more radical solution, open a tunnel from mainland to even more deeper then the bottom of the pitt, and keep drill up till you reach the hidden chamber. One thing is for sure with all the attempts to drill and reach the treasure, if there is a chamber, that chamber is already flooded with water, and if was knolage and books there, they are forever lost! I think that the stone with some encryption that they find near 90 ft, was the solution to the puzzle, and for sure that stone have some code or solution to avoid the traps or just a clue to find some type of mechanism to seal the floodind tunnels! If not why someone will leave a stone there just say that under few more feets is a treasure They even use a dead laguage, not used form more then 1000 yers! Is to obvious, and the ones that build that pitt know exactly what they was doing! And how to protect they secrets from ho attempt to drill the hole.

Kind of retarded how we can go to the moon and back, and can’t simply go down a hole that fills with water? Like get the fuck outta here, seriously if they really wanted to know what’s down there it would’ve been done already.

It’s not quite as simple as it seems to be laid out here. Each one of these previous attempts has muddied things up, there’s been side shafts and others things done, now it’s hard to say for sure where the original hole really was. A trained geologist couldn’t find the supposed flooding channels in a later dig. Artifacts that have been recovered are usually from previous expeditions, and the earliest records are a bit sketchy (were these actually oak platforms every 10 feet, or just downed trees that fell into a pit/sinkhole?) The coconut fibers are an interesting lead. But was that inscribed stone real or planted? You start researching it more, and you can see why serious companies are leery of spending big money on this.

Has no one else read the book “Riptide” by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston published in 1998 by Warner Books? It’s a fictional account of treasure hunters inspired by the actual events of the Money Pit. Prevent the water from entering the tunnel…

This is a most fascinating subject. I think that in 2012 it should be possible to get whatever is down there, if it hasn’t already been found and kept a huge secret. If the holy grail or the ark of the covenant were discovered there I don’t think it would ever be made public. If it was something of ET origin, it would never be made public.

If it were money, original shakespear manuscripts, or even the missing crown jewels, there is a better chance we would have heard of it. Then again, maybe whatever is there really has never been found, or there is nothing there at all. But why go to such trouble to construct such an elaborate and secure hiding place and then put nothing there?

I still wonder what the cypher stone really means. I highly doubt its saying there is money another 40 feet down. Just doesn’t make sense to me. And what is the meaning of the parchment with the letters V and I on it? So mysterious!

Perhaps we will never know who built this thing or why. But one thing is certain, they were world travelers. For example, the coconut fiber sure didn’t come from anywhere in Nova Scotia! (That alone rules out the possibility that this is a natural sink hole with coincidentally having platforms at regular intervals for me).

Unbelieveable that no-one has attempted to use a remote-controlled camera to gleen what is down there yet..that is at least completely achieveable given current technology. While it may not give physical access to the pit, it will give a better understanding of the nature of its construction(?) and contents.

i also can believe tht this hasn’t been done. i mean wht is humanity not capable of hearing in this crazy day and age? If we were told tht we were really AI in a computer simulated reality then, tht wouldn’t surprise me. I think no one has uncovered whts beneath the money pit. But who knows

What is everyone talking about a camera for. Please correct me if im wrong because i want to learn as much about this phenomenon as anyone else, But you have to dig. When the water floods in, a camera does nothing. because you still need to keep digging. me personally i believe that the public will never see what lies at the bottom. however i really want to know if we are still digging or have we given up due to the lives lost in the process?

also i dont understand how the stone slab can get lost. obviously stolen or taken by some kind of organization who may even know the meaning.

if i had it my way i would have that thing dug out tonight, i wouldn’t care how many lives are lost. i would dig straight through to china in search of something worth while.

Ok so lots of tunnels have been dug… I say fill them all in. Start from scratch… With as much info as possible find out who dug where and use ground penetrating radar to locate the side flood tunnels. Once located follow them to the original tunnel. Now as far as the flooding goes you need to own the whole island lol… To lower the tide surrounding the whole island unless you can locate where the main shaft is flooding and seal it off. Instead of drilling I’d say dig a hole but the futher you go down the wider the hole would have to be so by calculating the 40′ the tablet said and the depth @ which it was found 150? Say 200′ total deep figure out how wide you need to start excavating & do it!!! I think the original shaft is deeper than anyone has drilled thus far so the ground penetrating radar should have no problem locating the origional shaft, & any anomalies in the ground that could be considered treasure… I mean come on we find oil & everything else before we dig…

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March 25 2013
This kind of stuff really does intrest me , so lets see how we can slow down the water or come to a cpmplete stop, // from what I have seen no one has made any real attemp to stop the water at the source so lets see how this sounds. Scrape off the first 10 feet of ground along the shore line & dig trenches until you hit the water inlets shafts , this should be the first thing that is done, 2nd you should wait for winter to set in this is when the ground is frozen and you should have some great help from Mother Nature ,now you can control the sea water that is frozen, somthing is down their that some one wanted no one to find, it could be something of extrem wealth or somthing that we really should have never found , but thats the chance we take,

well I think that its not a matter of how, because we can get to the bottom of the pit, it is not impossible, but its a matter of when. To use all the modern pumping technologies, VS technologies requires a shitload of money, and you don’t even know whether it will be worth it!

After five years of research on the Acadian people who came from France as early as 1604, settled in different parts of Nova Scotia like Port Royal, Grand Pré, Beaubassin ect…, hard workers, were friendly with the Micmac Indians, the Acadians studied the surroundings, noticed that when the tides came in, it flooded acres and acres of land, they were master ship builders, artists , singers, decided not to trample on the natives land, decided to build Aboiteau’s (Dikes) changing the route of the ocean high tides, where ocean water flooded before, became land where the Acadians planted their crops, The Aboiteau’s are still in operation in Nova Scotia since 400 years. Knowing that the Acadians were all over Nova Scotia, maybe they were the ones who dugged this pit using a technology unknown to us to keep the tides from flooding in the pit, maybe there is no treasure in the pit, maybe the pit was built for some other reason ? But, if there was a treasure in the pit, rest asure it was found, and its kepted secret, asked yourself why would a such precious stone disappear ? It makes no sense, but the Acadian people were engineers when it came to tunnels and changing the directions of tides.

Seriously? What is wrong with the idea of scuba or use of a diving bell type apparatus? If it’s so expensive to try and come up with how to keep pumping out all the water, then STOP TRYING TO PUMP OUT THE WATER! Keep drilling, use scuba divers or a diving chamber to get people down there to check personally, maybe line the shaft with lights for guidance, and keep it up till you get somewhere. All I see are people trying to figure out how to cut off the supply of the FREAKING OCEAN and drain all the water out. Why waste the energy and instead just keep going straight down, it’s water. If we can reach the bottom of the freaking ocean, I think we should be able to manage a pit.

I agree that there are likely spent nuclear rods or waste down there. The pit was designed so that no one (including the ones that buried it) could resurrect it. Pirates or Crusaders would bury treasure or valuables with the intention of retrieving it one day. This is obviously not the case here. We do this today deep underground. With all the obstacles and casualties of this you’d think these people would get the message….HAZARDOUS!!!